Ex-seniors home owner in Stewiacke area fined $1,375

FRANCIS CAMPBELL TRURO BUREAUPublished July 21, 2014 - 7:29pm

Woman says she’s not guilty of offences but doesn’t have time for long legal battle

Marilyn Fisher, who ran Marilyn’s Country Haven for Seniors on Alton Road, pleaded guilty Monday in Shubenacadie provincial court to two charges involving the home and was fined $687.41 for each offence. (FRANCIS CAMPBELL / Truro Bureau)

SHUBENACADIE — A woman who ran a seniors home near Stewiacke that was shut down by the province in February says she’s not up for a protracted legal battle.

Marilyn Fisher, who ran Marilyn’s Country Haven for Seniors on Alton Road, pleaded guilty Monday in Shubenacadie provincial court to two charges involving the home and was fined $687.41 for each offence.

“I am guilty of owning the property but I’m not guilty of the offences,” Fisher, 54, told Judge Timothy Gabriel after the charges were read out in court.

“I don’t want a lawyer. I don’t have time for that.”

Gabriel advised Fisher to make some time or at least to talk with Crown attorney Jillian Fage and a legal aid lawyer during the break.

The Country Haven saga began on Feb. 19 when fire and police officials went into the home and told Fisher that it was to be shut down because of safety breaches and the six elderly residents living there were to be moved out.

A notice was posted near the entrance to the house stating that the seniors home was out of business.

Two days later, police exercised a warrant to again search the premises that served as both a residence for Fisher and an extended-care home for the six patients.

The incorporated home was charged under the provincial Fire Safety Act with unlawfully acquiescing to allow one of the seniors, Kaye Drysdale, back into the home and with unlawfully removing the posting that stated the extended-care home was closed.

Fisher repeated after Monday’s court session that she was “ambushed” by the original Feb. 19 inspection and not given proper time to deal with the uncovered safety hazards, that included insufficient exit plans in case of fire and room doors that locked from the outside.

“It’s sad that as a private home, they deemed me unsafe,” Fisher said Monday. “Everyone that left was walking and they didn’t require much care. Now, two of them are dead.

“What are the seniors’ rights? They said it was a danger. If it was such a danger, why didn’t they give me 31 days?”

Labour Minister Kelly Regan said at the time that the home was shut down because the fire marshal found “major problems.”

“You have a home that is not licensed, that did not have a permit to have elderly persons living there who don’t have the ability to evacuate themselves,” Regan said. “There was no exit plan. There was no training for staff to evacuate the residents. In my view, the fire marshal’s office acted appropriately.”

Fisher said the second inspection on Feb. 21 was a second ambush and that it need not have resulted in charges being laid.

“Everyone had been removed,” Fisher said of the six elderly residents. “Everybody left. They didn’t take pills, they didn’t take anything. They just actually ambushed the place.

“The second time, Kaye Drysdale’s daughter realized she didn’t have anything for Kaye because she was ushered out so quickly, and so she came back to get stuff and she brought her mother with her.”

Drysdale was found in an ensuite at the home. The posting had been ripped down by her son, Fisher said.

“To bring it to court and to fight for four or five years, it’s not worth it.”

Fisher, a licensed practical nurse who is currently seeking employment in Alberta, insisted that she had the proper permits to run an extended-care home.

“They (residents) loved it there,” Fisher said. “It was like a great big home. I took them to church and I took them out for dinner.”